In the removal of insulation from electrical wire, it is often desired, and even sometimes necessary to remove the insulation from wires without nicking, scratching or cutting the wires themselves since electrical and mechanical failures can result from wires that have been weakened or damaged during the insulation stripping process.
One particular device which has been suggested and taught for such a purpose is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,059,892 to Sidon. This device uses deformable blades of sufficient hardness to cut through the insulation but not the wire. Significant manual pressure is required to cut through the insulation, especially in the case of wires covered by Teflon.RTM. insulation or other tough insulation which is difficult to cut mechanically. In this case, blades of sufficient hardness to cut through the Teflon.RTM. or other tough insulation can result in nicks and indentations in the wire during the stripping process even though deformable blades are employed.
Other devices employ thermal means to severe the insulation from the wire. Such devices, however, often employ metallic blades which are electrically heated. The metal to metal contact between the blades and the wire which occurs during the stripping process often results in a slight nicking or scratching of the wire. Moreover, certain military specifications specifically require that during the stripping process, no current carrying element shall contact the wire being stripped.
A more recent innovation of electrically heated thermal stripping tools is shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,932,291 entitled "Thermal Wire Stripper" and assigned to the assignee of the present invention. This device is a significant improvement over the prior devices in that it overcomes many of the drawbacks of those earlier devices. However, there are certain characteristics of this device which, in some cases, may result in less than optimum operation and results. For example, the contact of the electrical conductors in the conducting legs which contact the resistance heating wire in the blade is a squeeze type point contact which upon frequent replacement may tend to degrade to some extent. This will diminish the current carrying capacity of the electrical circuit and thus impair the heating of the resistance wire. Moreover, the jaws utilized are not aligned in both the x and y axes of the plane on which the jaws mate. Misalignment of the jaws can result in less than optimal cutting operations in some instances.